a shadow's love song
by nosugarincoffee
Summary: Dantalion keeps coming to meet William after he was elected the substitute king, although William doesn't remember and can't see him anymore. Inspired by Makai Ouji ending of the same title.


According to Wikipedia, Dantalion can "show the similitude of any person, show the same by means of a vision, and let them be in any part of the world they will". (quoted)

* * *

_The sunrays are terribly sharp._

Exhaling a breath and lifting an arm to shade his gaze, William opened his eyes.

_Somehow... I feel like I've seen a really long dream..._

"William!"

His forehead wrinkled in reaction to the annoyingly loud call.

"Isaac...?" he placed the high voice in his memory.

"Thank God! I thought you weren't going to wake up anymore..."

William turned his head on the pillow to the right for Isaac to enter his field of view. Corresponding with his tone, he looked on verge of tears.

"Weren't going to wake up anymore? What do you..."

"It's past eleven. That's the first time you've slept so late, William."

"Eleven?"

His head returned to its original position and he gazed into the ceiling, as though trying to figure out the meaning of the word.

"Are you ill?" asked Isaac.

"Not really. I just..."

He paused.

"I just had a strange dream."

"What kind of dream?"

"I had the feeling like somebody was there... and wasn't there at the same time."

Hearing his own answer, William got the impression there was a solid basis to doubt his mental health. Isaac was of a different opinion.

"By any chance... have you got possessed?"

"Hah?"

"You know... if you felt you were alone in your dream and yet that you weren't, isn't it normal to suppose the presence that was and wasn't there at the same time is something that possessed you? Like a ghost..." Isaac's face grew pale, and he added briskly: "or a demon?"

"As if," William snorted and threw the blanket off his legs. "And there's no way that ghosts or demons exist."

_Huh...? Why do my words feel so out of place?_

"William?"

"It's nothing," he replied and rose to his feet. "Besides, I bet I got that feeling because you were creepy staring at me while I was sleeping."

There was the usual matter-of-fact, as-if-I'm-going-to-deal-with-your-stupid-ideas ring to his voice. Isaac seemed to have heard it as well, and left William's room without another word, smiling in relief.

William changed from his pyjamas and, having made another quick observation of his room with eyes narrowed in suspicion, walked out of the door.

"'There's no way demons exist, huh'?"

Window curtains were drawn aside and a figure slid down from the sill.

"Well... it's like you, William."

He smiled to himself a little, smile reminiscent of the first raincloud which summons other ones.

"No matter how many times I call your name, you aren't going to hear it, are you?"

"Why are you even hiding, Dantalion?"

Camio was leaning against the door frame, arms folded.

"It's not like he's going to see you there."

"You just answered yourself," Dantalion said as he made to pass him. "I simply like excuses better."

"You'll break yourself if you keep coming to human world, you know."

Sitri sitting on the freshly made bed sunk a hand into a bag of biscuits, pulled one out and surveyed it, flipping it over and back in his fingers.

"It's a title you received from him. You should treasure it more."

Teeth clenched, Dantalion clicked his tongue, and strode out of the too familiar room.

"_William..."_

"_What's it again?"_

"_You... you were always absolutely against ever electing anyone! Why..."_

"_It can't go on this way."_

"_What?"_

"_As I said, it can't go on this way forever. If I don't elect one, all of you will just keep sticking to me, won't you? I have a life I want to live. Goals I want to achieve. I can't go on being followed around by a bunch of incomprehensible creatures and risking getting killed on top of that."_

"_I told you I'd protect you! And until now, I have –"_

"_You protect me so that I could elect you, right?"_

That's not right.

"_So what are you dissatisfied with?"_

Can't you understand, William?

"_I..."_

_He couldn't finish the sentence._

"_Well, take it as a thank you or whatever you will."_

_William averted his sight, cheeks slightly red._

"_For such a weird assembling of atoms, it wasn't bad getting to meet you."_

Then why?

_Inside his mind he screamed the continuation of the torn words, shouted it until he became tired of it, but thought precious of that annoyance born of repetition, because it rooted the reality deeper within him._

I don't want to lose you. I don't want to lose you. I don't want to lose you.

"_...yeah."_

_The low exclamation was the only sound he managed to create._

Cold sensation against his back brought him to consciousness.

He was in a chamber in the Hell, the one where he had first fought to protect William. Baphomet was standing in the corner, with a straight back and an illegible expression, although Dantalion thought he could discern disapproval in it. It wasn't the first time Baphomet dragged him by force back to the world to which they belonged, before his body wouldn't stand the pressure of being in human world, his tolerance drastically lower when compared to the time preceding his inauguration as the substitute king of Hell.

_Though sometimes I'd prefer just being burnt by the sun... if that meant my voice could reach you..._

He stayed lying on the cool floor.

_I wonder why I became a demon. That way I don't even have the consolation of saying 'when I'm reborn'..._

"William! What are you doing!? It'll be a heavy downpour in no time!"

"Yeah. I'm going for a walk."

"In this weather? You don't even have an umbrella on you!"

"Yeah."

Isaac looked after him, hesitating between worry about his friend and wish to avoid catching a cold. The strengthening rain eventually made him dash for the boarding house, direction opposite to one in which William had headed.

William stopped in the middle of the campus plaza, his head bowed, perhaps to endure the lashing raindrops better, perhaps in search of something.

"Look at me, William. Always the cool and superior Dantalion now running away like a hyperactive kid that should be lying in bed with flu. You'd laugh, wouldn't you?"

Dantalion's fingertips moved through the air in a caressing motion, millimetres from William's cheek. William raised a hand in daze and touched it to his face.

Sitri, perched on a bough of a nearby tree and listening to Dantalion's confession that would never be heard, could see tears slipping out of William's eyes, which William himself probably mistook for raindrops. He could see William's fingers connected to the side of Dantalion's hand while they grasped for nothing in air, and Dantalion's tears Dantalion himself was probably painfully well aware of.

"If that helps you, I won't stop you," he said in resignation, closed his eyes and vanished.

"Good morning, Head Boy."

"Good morning, Twining."

"Morning, William."

William turned around and hunched over at the sight of Sitri munching on sweets, his fanclub behind him.

"Seriously, why don't you go volunteer yourself as a research material on not gaining weight..."

"I can't help it. Breakfasts here taste really terrible," Sitri shrugged and bit into another biscuit.

"Oh, is that so..." said William with an ironical smirk and walked on.

"Hey there, William!"

The blond gave a start and the black-haired demon laughed. William immediately covered up his embarrassment with an irritated countenance.

"Could you stop waiting for me behind corners? It's creepy. And what's with that stupid grin straight since morning?"

"Then, then. It's a nice day. The weather's good, too..."

The sky was a pale blue with myriad white puffs of clouds, lawns lush green owing to rain that had been falling past several last days. Breeze wafted by them, presenting them with a refreshing feeling against warm sunrays.

"I guess."

That's right. A normal to the point it's boring, never really changing scenery. Scenery the reason for which was pushed somewhere to the bottom of mind and nearly forgotten, stored merely so that somebody couldn't claim it wasn't there at all.

"Listen, William."

"Hm? What is it?"

"When you elect the –"

"That's not happening."

_I wish I could believe those words. I wish._

"Can I go with a hypothesis then?"

William sighed.

"Do as you like."

"If you elected one of us, and we disappeared from before your eyes... would you meet me again?"

"...hah?"

"Can you... promise me?"

"Hey..."

William became uncertain at Dantalion's look of solemn sorrow.

"...knowing you, you're going to come to meet me anyway, right? How many years were there between me and Solomon..."

Dantalion's lips formed a wide, joyful smile, William in turn gaining first surprised, then would-be indifferent expression.

"Then just remember me as a creepy demon who waits for you behind corners and watches you sleep, okay?"

"Are you trying out a melodrama- wait, you watch me sleep!?"

Dantalion grinned in response.

_Yeah, I do. Even in the world and reality where you live, having forgotten me as he did, I do._

_You know, maybe one day, I'll stop. Maybe one day I'll have grown too tired of calling your name, trying to touch you and refusing to let go of my feelings. Maybe I'll stop being jealous of everyone who can really be with you. But... when you are reborn, I know I'll come to meet you again. Of course you'll have forgotten these days and days before them, my name, my face and my voice. I'll follow you around again trying to convince you I'm real. Or maybe by then the existence of demons and the Hell will have been scientifically explained. Maybe the one responsible for it will be you, William. Or maybe you'll be reborn as an occult maniac next time, and it'll be _you_ sticking to _me_ instead. Well, I'm fine with either one, really._

"...huh?"

William ran his fingers down his wet cheek.

"Was I crying...?"

His back facing William, glancing around in a slightly confused way, and the red eyes glistening, Dantalion's voice filled with dearness shivered a little.

"See you then, William."


End file.
